G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images
Turns out that the third-grade teacher who promised her class some hot chocolate if she made a deep basket—and promptly sank the shot, in a video that has since gone viral—has some serious game.
As in, she’s former Rutgers basketball player Kathleen Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick played her redshirt senior season for Rutgers, starting 16 games in the 2017-18 season, after transferring from St. Joseph’s.
She appeared on SportsCenter Thursday to talk about the moment:
Rutgers W.Basketball @RutgersWBB
“Did they not know that you’ve done this before⁉️”<br><br>ICYMI … Ms. Fitz (aka <a href=”https://twitter.com/RutgersWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@RutgersWBB</a> alum Kathleen Fitzpatrick) on <a href=”https://twitter.com/SportsCenter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@SportsCenter</a> with <a href=”https://twitter.com/sagesteele?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@sagesteele</a> & <a href=”https://twitter.com/mrvincecarter15?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@mrvincecarter15</a> today talking about the shot seen ’round the world!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoRU?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#GoRU</a> <a href=”https://t.co/bvmIw3toE3″>pic.twitter.com/bvmIw3toE3</a>
“I usually do play basketball with them at recess, and I don’t really take it lightly,” she said. “I play as hard as I can. And I just picked up a ball, and I said if I make this—it was a Friday afternoon—and I said if I make this shot we’ll have hot chocolate on Monday as a class. … I just launched it and it went in.”
Fitzpatrick added that she was equally excited to kick off Monday with a hot chocolate treat. Which, yeah—a hot chocolate party sounds amazing this time of year. Good job, Ms. Fitz.